Note: I wanted to send this message out on Father's Day but I got too busy doing Father's Day stuff to write it!

My daughter Sienna and I started the day at church, had a delicious steak for lunch, played mini-golf at Puttshack, stopped for an ice cream and finished off the day watching Iron Man (her first Marvel movie).

We hung out from morning till night and had an absolute blast.

For those new to this list, we lost my wife (and Sienna's mom) Shelli in October, so this was our first Father's Day without her.

Shelli was the absolute best when it came to writing birthday cards, Father's Day cards, Valentine's Day cards and all the rest.

She would fill up all the blank space inside the card and sometimes on the back if she had more to say.

It would always be filled with heartfelt praise, compliments, gratitude, appreciation... along with smiley faces, hearts and the kind of little drawings that preceded emojis.

I still have a few of her cards from the past couple years and wish I'd saved all of them since we got together.

So every Father's Day used to start with a card at the breakfast table.

And yesterday, just as I was about to start breakfast, Sienna came running into the kitchen and handed me a card.

It was homemade and had a creative riddle on the front, and the inside was wall-to-wall words of love and appreciation... along with a "don't share this on social media" warning 🙂

So I'll keep the details to myself.

But I couldn't get around the thought... "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree."

I know Shelli never gave Sienna a formal training in the art of card writing.

But she did give Sienna plenty of cards herself.

And they were all written in her signature style.

So Sienna would read them, and without thinking consciously "I'm going to write cards like this someday," she just learned how to do it from her mom.

And there are so many little moments when I see Shelli living on through Sienna... her words, facial expressions, tone of voice, friendliness, etc.

It's why I so often tell clients about the importance of parenting.

Kids are downloading you every single day.

And not just when you want them to.

They download the good stuff and the not-so-good stuff.

That's why I've spent so many hours, days and years hanging out with Sienna... because I knew she would download all the good stuff and how helpful it would be for her.

Of course, I didn't know she'd lose her mom at such a young age.

But the positive attitude and resilience we gave her is really helping during this time, and it will continue to help her in the future.

So yes, Shelli was a great wife and mother, and while she's gone from this world, she lives on through her daughter... and even through her husband.

Just as we all will live on once we're gone... through the people we interact with the most who survive us.

Keep that in mind this week.

And Happy belated Father's Day to all you dads out there.

Cheers,

Sean